Trailer Analysis

Lauryn Dainton

The Trailer – Target AudienceThe film certificate is a 15 which I think is appropriate for the film as it does contain some very frightening things. Even adults were scared / spooked by this film. The target audience I think are 15-21 year olds as these people are the people who go to the cinema often and speaking for myself as a 17 year old student I use my student discount to watch films as do a lot of my friends.

The trailer appeals to the target audience because it contains an element of mystery as to what this thing is. And the whole true story element is very intriguing to anyone who watches the trailer.

The Trailer Itself – Basic InformationThe trailer has just 53 cuts over 2:34 minutes, which is considerably less than other horror movies. Even though this trailer seems to have a decreased pace, this may be due to the fact that this trailer is for a horror film, and not an action film. The tension is built up by the suspense of longer cuts, rather than the build up of many quicker cuts, also no CGI has been used here. This may be due to the fact that it has a lower budget, or simply because it was not needed for the completion of the trailer.

The Trailer – Broken DownThe trailer is divided up into three acts, the first act ends at 0:33 when the wardrobe door opens. This is when the whole feel of the trailer changes – the music stops, and an eerie silence takes its place. We see the first glimpse of the thing of the that is haunting the family. Act two begins here, but ends at 1:25, just after we see the picture frames come crashing down. Intertitles come in here, and unnatural music is played. The last act begins from here, and shows the haunting developing and becoming more serious. Near the end of the third act, we see the woman become engulfed in darkness and we hear her scream. This would leave the audience curious as to what happened to her, which would entice them to go see the film.

The Trailer - SoundThe sound in this trailer is effective in creating the right mood and atmosphere for an advertisement within the horror genre. At the start of this trailer, we first hear the door opening and the shouting of the whole family as they come through the door, as the children shout things over each other such as “I get my own room!”

and “I call dibs on the room!”. This creates a family feel to this part, as the sound is just simply the typical noises of a family moving into a new home. Straight after this, a song kicks in with the visual indent – the song ‘Time of the Season’ by The Zombies. This song is from the album ‘Odessey and Oracle’ which was released in 1968. Due to the fact that this film is set in 1971, this sets the scene well for the turning of the decade and you really get the feel of the era just by hearing this

song. Also the fact that it is by a band called ‘The Zombies’ would be appropriate for a horror film, but would obviously only be relevant for those in the audience who

actually know this.

Then, we hear a child counting, which links to the visual on screen – they are playing a game, and when the woman finishes counting to ten, we hear her shout, “First

clap!” which is returned by the sound of a clap. This lets us know how the game is played (which is key later on in the trailer) and shows the innocence this family.

The woman plays the game and enters a room, but as she turns her back, a wardrobe at the back of the room opens. It opens with a loud creak, and

the music suddenly stops – a sinister silence follows. This silence creates a very uneasy feel to

the trailer, and would indicate to the audience that something is not quite right. The woman

hears the creak, and says “Clap!” again, which is returned by an unusually slow clap, again,

creating an uneasy edge. As she walks forward to try and find the source of the clap, which is the aim of the game, she says playfully “I’m gonna

get you now… I can hear you breathing”. We can hear this breathing, however, it is not coming

from the child as she thinks it is. As an audience, we know this, and tension is built as we anticipate the woman finding a supernatural creature instead

of her daughter.

We hear the girl laugh from another room, and her come in and say “you took your blindfold off! I win! I was in Christine and Nancy’s room”. This causes the woman to look curiously into the wardrobe. We hear the hangers part, but no one is found behind them. The audience heard the clap come from inside the wardrobe, and heard the breathing, and the fact that nothing is found in here creates tension.

After this, strange quiet background music is played, and as the woman is folding clothes, we hear the laugh of a child, and footsteps coming from the corridor. It is a night time scene, and the woman responds to this by saying “Girls, it’s way past your bedtime…” as she goes to investigate the noise. A long pause of silence follows this as she looks in the rooms to find everyone asleep. Suddenly, there is a huge crash, which could give the audience a fright, and as the crashing continues, we hear a child’s laugh again. This has a disturbing feel to it, as it seems as though whatever is laughing is enjoying the destruction it is causing.

The woman goes downstairs to investigate further, and straight after she shouts “Who is that?” we hear the unmistakable noise of a door slowly opening, and a non diegetic clapping noise. The girls are in bed, so this could be considered quite creepy – who is in the basement playing the game and tormenting the woman? Suspense is created here as she goes through the cellar door, and turns on the light switch, and peers down into the darkness. She attempts to threaten whatever is down there by saying “Whoever’s down there I’m gonna lock you in now!” however, as she turns to exit, the door slams shut in her face, and the light bulb blows with a fizzing noise. This could again, give a fright to the audience, who may not have been expecting this loud noise.

Now in complete darkness, we hear the woman scramble about, banging on the door and crying for help. This may create sympathy for this character among the audience, as we realise how helpless she is here. We hear a match being struck, and we see the flame. There is silence again, apart from the heavy breathing of the woman., which is a clear indication of her fear. We hear a clap once more and the math goes out. The woman screams, which is a typical sound effect for a horror film, and defines the whole genre. As the screen stays on black, a music box tune plays out, which brings an ominous feeling, mixed with a childlike innocence. There is something very threatening about this, which would cause the viewer to feel very uneasy.

The Trailer – Mise En Scene

The Mise en scene throughout this trailer also gives it a creepy edge. Starting at the beginning again, we see the larger family spill through the front door, all dressed in what look like clothes from the 70s; the colour of these clothes, which seems to be hues of yellows, browns and oranges are all warm (and typical popular colours of the

decade), which have connotations of warmth, and happiness. This would suggest that this family are happy.

Even the house itself, although it looks slightly worn and there are several dust covers around, the warm brown colours of the wood keep the house looking like a

nice place to live. When we see the woman wander into the bedroom with the blindfold on, the room has several posters on the wall, with pinks and blues, and the

rug is in similar shades, indicating that this is a child’s room. It looks like a nice spacious room, but behind the woman, we see an object which contrasts with all

other objects there – a huge, dark wardrobe. The wood it is made of is almost black, and its large size creates a menacing feeling. This is made clear as soon as the

doors slowly open. Inside , there are just clothes, again, in nice, bright colours, yet as soon as the woman says “Clap”, we see long, pale arms reach out from behind them. They look sickly pale, and this is a clear indication that they are not normal,

something is wrong with the scene. Even the blindfold that is tied over the woman’s eyes is a bright red colour. Red has connotations of danger, and even blood, which could signify that something is very dangerous about that pair of hands that she is

walking towards.

We see an establishing shot of the house at 1:03. it is the first time the audience are given a view of the whole building, with just a single white porch light glowing outside. Even the trees seem to frame the house with their branches, and the slow zoom into the house ensure to the audience that this is the centre of all events within the trailer.The camera flicks inside of the house, the woman standing at the side of her bed folding clothes. She is dressed in a white night dress. The white colouring has connotations of innocence – the character herself is innocent, but we can tell by the strange silence, and soon by the child’s laughter that this innocence is going to be taken advantage of. After she checks on her daughters, the loud crashing is heard, and the camera reveals to us that the picture frames have been torn down, by what seems to be an invisible force. Clearly, this shows us that something is working against the family, and the peeling of the wallpaper we can see shows us how old this building really is.

The woman goes downstairs to try and find the intruder, and when the door is

opened, she peers inside into the darkness. Darkness is a common

feature in almost all horror films, and here it gives us a very uneasy feeling as viewers – is something down there

in the darkness?

She turns on the light and peers down, and the white light of the cellar gives

the room a monochrome look. This has connotations of the past, a different decade or even a different century, which may give the audience a clue that whatever is causing the strange happenings could be supernatural, from the past to haunt the family.

The woman is locking in there, and we see the screen go dark again. We don’t know what is happening to the woman in the dark, which again, makes the audience feel slightly frightened for the character – the darkness is hiding something which is not friendly. She strikes a match, and unusually, it does not cast a warm glow as matches usually do. The light is whiter and harsher, highlighting the woman’s expression of fear to the audience. From the darkness behind her, we see a familiar pair of pale hands reach out and clap next to the woman’s face. This is done quite quickly, which again might make the audience jump with fright, due to it being so unexpected.

Film Trailer – Editing & Cinematography

After the doors of the wardrobe open, the screen fades to black, before a hand held, tracking mid close up shot of the woman is filmed from in front of her. We cannot see what she is walking towards, and this, coupled with the shaky camera movements may give an unnerving feeling to the audience. After this, a close up of her face is seen, as she realises that her daughter is not where she thinks she is - we see her face drop, and her expressions change very quickly from joy, to confusion and fear.

The editing and cinematography within it also helps to create an apprehensive ambience for viewers. The use of mid shots and soft lighting within the first act of the trailer allows it to follow the characters through their normal business, whether it was first entering their new home or playing games. A tracking shot is also used to follow the woman as se goes on the hunt to find her daughters in the game, but by the beginning of the second act, we see everything change slightly.

The Trailer – Long CutAnother long cut of 10 seconds follows these short cuts, where the woman turns to see the door opening. Again, this scene would not have been as effective if there had been a cut in between – the camera does an unnatural 180 degree spin, which is not a common shot on a trailer, and the fear in the woman’s face is made clearly visible in this turn.

As she goes into the cellar, we see a very harsh cantered, low angled shot, showing the woman turn on the light at the top of the stairs. Cantered angles are used to let the audience know that something is not normal about the events to follow, and this is certainly true and relevant in this trailer – the woman is locked in, and the light bulb blows, plunging her into darkness. There is a long pause as she screams for help in the dark, and 8 seconds follow where nothing is on the screen at all. When she strikes the match, we see a mid shot of her kneeling on the floor - a low angle, as if we as viewers are looking up the stairs at her. An over the shoulder shot follows, as we see her view of the dark stair case, the light from the match casts a glow around her, which could have connotations that she is the only ting that is good and innocent in this cellar.

The Trailer – Title A mid close up of the woman is shown as she holds the candle, and after 3 seconds, a pair of hands clap very loudly over her left (right to view) shoulder. With her breath, the match is blown out, and 4 seconds of darkness is shown again, with the echo of her scream resonating. Her scream in the darkness would leave a lasting impression on the viewer, and straight after this, we hear the music box music, as the title is shown on screen.

Overall, I think that this trailer is very effective. I thin that the use of cinematography, sound and mise en scene was very good in ensuring that the viewer knew exactly what era it was set in, and excellent in creating a frightening atmosphere. Although the trailer was 2:34 minutes long and showed a lot of footage, it did not give too much away – a sense of mystery is definitely left at the end, as we are left enough to know that the family are being haunted, but we are left wondering what exactly is haunting them, and why they chose this house and this family. Through the use of silence and small ambient sounds like the door creaking and children’s laughter, it helped to make a chilling trailer without using gore or anything too graphic.

There are several other trailers for this film which fill in a lot more detail, such as the introduction of the Warren’s, however, I think this trailer was the most effective in leaving a lasting impression in the viewer’s mind. I actually sat and watched this film, so the trailer did exactly as it was supposed to in enticing me to go and watch the film and leave me in suspense to find out more.